He fed me the first bite and… I moaned around it. “Holy shit.”
“Better than the orgasm?”
“Ansel.”
He smirked. “Just checking.”
We shared the plate between us. I let him hold the fork. Let him graze it against my lips like it was a sin to eat without his help.Syrup dripped down my chin, and he licked it off, slowly and smugly.
And grinning.Alwaysgrinning.
If fourteen-year-old me could see me right now? She wouldcombust. Tangled up in bed withEryk Moonstriderwhile he fed me breakfast?
When we were finished, he set the plate aside and pulled me back into him, our limbs tangled, his fingers trailing senselessly across my skin underneath the covers. My eyes drifted shut as he held me.
“Junie?” he said, quietly, after several moments of comfortable quiet.
“Mhm?”
“You cried earlier.”
I didn’t open my eyes. “I know.”
The plate was gone. My skin was warm. I was still wearing his shirt and nothing else, and Ansel was curled around me like I was some small, precious thing he’d beenentrustedwith.
He’d already said it.
Days ago.
Dropped the words like they weretruth, like he wasn’t afraid of what they might cost him. Like loving me wasn’t dangerous. And I hadn’t said a thing.
But now, in the quiet, wrapped in his arms, all I wanted was to say it back. To press it to his mouth and feel it returned. “I could live here,” I murmured.
“In my bed?” he teased, nose nuzzling against my temple. “Naked and spoiled?”
“In your arms.”
The silence stretched. His breath caught.
Fuck.
I felt it hit —hard— like I’d cracked open without meaning to.
I panicked. “I just meant — because you’re warm. And it’s quiet. And… you made French toast.”
Ansel shifted just enough to look at me. His expression was sosoft, it made my heart hurt. “You know you don’t have to walk it back,” he said.
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
I swallowed. “I just… I don’t want to break anything. Not between us. Not in me.”
“You’re not breaking anything,” he said. “You’re trying not to feel too much. But… it’s alright if you already do.”
My chest seized. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not? I love you.”
